


Defence in Depth

by grommile



Category: Neon Genesis Evangelion
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-30
Updated: 2019-10-02
Packaged: 2019-10-19 09:39:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 5,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17598851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grommile/pseuds/grommile
Summary: The designers of the Evangelion neural interface had gone to some trouble to protect the pilot from being absorbed or mentally contaminated by the Evangelion.Unfortunately for Shinji and Asuka, the dual synchronization scenario was not considered.





	1. Prologue - Abstract

Neurological safety and security in the Evangelion Project - a lack of defence in depth

Akagi R, Ibuki M  
Tokyo-3, 2017

The primary security boundary in the interface between the pilot and the Evangelion consists of the filter circuits integrated into the Entry Plug. Early designs of this interface featured additional filter circuits in the A10 neural connectors worn by the pilots. Once the Entry Plug's filter circuits were proven to be more than adequate for all reasonable situations, the filters in the A10 connectors were removed on the grounds that they impaired the pilot's synchronization ratio.

In this paper, the authors report on the psychological and physiological consequences of this design decision for two pilots who underwent emergency dual synchronization during the Angel attack on the UN Pacific Fleet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before you ask, no, Shinji did not bring Aida and Suzuhara into the entry plug during the fight with Shamshel.


	2. Debriefing - Gaghiel

Deputy Commander Kōzō Fuyutsuki looked at the red-headed teenage girl in front of him and wondered again why he had ever let himself be caught up in this madness. "Pilot Sōryū, what was your rationale for bringing Pilot Ikari into the Entry Plug with you?"

Asuka glanced sideways at Captain Katsuragi as if seeking comfort or support. "I... The safest place in an Angel battle is the inside of an Entry Plug, sir."

Fuyutsuki sighed and raised an eyebrow. "While certainly true, that doesn't quite justify your behaviour. Let me phrase my question differently. What was your rationale for putting Pilot Ikari in a situation where bringing him with you into the Entry Plug was the most suitable choice?"

"I wanted to show off my Evangelion to him," admitted Asuka, cheeks colouring as she again looked towards Katsuragi. "We were right there in the hangar when the alarm sounded."

"I can understand that. Contrary to popular belief, I too was once young and enthusiastic." Fuyutsuki glanced down at the slim manila folder containing the initial report from the Pacific Fleet. "The admiral had a great deal to say about this incident, very little of it friendly, and I will be directing most of it to the attention of NERV Berlin. Their decision to transport your Evangelion by sea fitted with standard B-Type equipment is a shocking oversight."

Asuka frowned at him, but kept her reply brief. "Thank you, sir."

Fuyutsuki sat back in his chair. "Captain Katsuragi, do you have anything to add?"

"You did a good job out there, Asuka," said Katsuragi, smiling. "Nobody could have done better."

"Thank you, ma'am." Asuka looked like she'd bitten down on a lemon.

"Well, Pilot Sōryū," said Fuyutsuki, doing his best to keep his tone light, "you are very welcome here at NERV Tokyo-3. Dismissed."

* * *

Lieutenant Maya Ibuki had been staring at the psychograph readings on her computer screen for ten minutes before raising an empty coffee cup to her lips sparked a sudden insight. She switched over to a command line window, tapped in a few adjustments to the analysis settings, and rose wearily from a chair really not designed to be occupied for hours on end. "Akagi-sempai, would you like another coffee?"

Ritsuko Akagi rose equally wearily from her seat, shaking her head. "Not now. I scored some spare go-pills from an SDF pilot a few days ago. Should still be some left, just let me find them."

Maya looked down into her empty cup, trying to hide her shock. "I... I don't take drugs, sempai."

"Caffeine just makes you wired. Speed makes you smarter." Ritsuko grinned. "Paul Erdős stopped taking speed once. He didn't write a single paper that month."

"I'll just, uh, stick to coffee, sempai," squeaked Maya as she retreated from their shared office. Walking as briskly as she could manage down the hall, Maya found Captain Katsuragi standing opposite the coffee machine, muttering to herself.

"Ah, Captain? Are you all right?" asked Maya.

"Oh, just paperwork. The fleet wants us to pay for its ships. Replacing those destroyers costs less than the repair bill from Operation Yashima, but it's the principle of the thing. We're not the Navy's paymasters." Katsuragi knocked back the contents of her cup. "How's life treating you, Lieutenant?"

Maya hesitated for a moment, wondering whether to mention her sempai's little habit. "Um, I had an unusual offer this evening," she said, as she keyed in her order on the coffee machine. "And I think I'm getting somewhere with the data from Asuka's fight."

"Your sempai trying to lead you into temptation, is she?" asked Katsuragi, waggling her eyebrows.

Maya felt her cheeks burning. "Captain! Nothing like that! She just, uh, likes something a bit stronger than coffee to keep her going."

"Oh, right. Yeah, that sounds like Ritz. Anyway. I'll get back to my numbers and let you get back to yours. G'night!"

Maya grabbed her coffee from the machine and headed back down the hall. As she approached the office door, she heard Ritsuko cursing loudly.

"That pig! That absolute pig! I'll..." Ritsuko tailed off as Maya walked back in. "Um. It seems I don't have those go-pills any more. Could I trouble you to get me a coffee?"

Maya sighed. "Sempai. I think I'm getting somewhere with these psychographs. Let me just check the results first."

Settling into her seat, Maya unlocked her screen and grinned. The idea she'd had when she ran out of coffee had worked. "Sempai, I know what's wrong with these psychographs."

"Go on."

"The Entry Plug protects the pilot from being contaminated by the Evangelion, but in a dual sync scenario, the pilots are both on the same side of the filter circuit. At high sync ratio..."

"I'll be damned." Ritsuko smacked herself on the forehead. "Misato mentioned Asuka and Shinji both seemed a little _off_ after the battle, and not just in the way Shinji always is. I'll get them in for a sync test ASAP."


	3. Resonance

Shinji Ikari lay in the darkness staring at his bedroom ceiling, unable to sleep despite an exhausting day. He'd wanted to say something to Asuka - it felt strange to think so familiarly of a girl he'd only just met, but it felt even stranger _not_ to - as she came out of her debriefing, but the thunderous look on her face as she stalked down the hallway made him hold his tongue. Misato had come out a few minutes later, apologized to him for having "all the paperwork ever" to do, and asked a Section Two agent to drive him home.

Now he was stuck with only his racing thoughts for company. Synchronizing to Asuka's Unit 02 had been a very different experience to synchronizing to Unit 01, yet even that paled in comparison to the strangeness of having someone else in the loop. He'd tried to concentrate on the sensory inputs of the Evangelion itself, but keeping Asuka's thoughts out of his head entirely had proven impossible. Given the way she'd looked at him after they finally got out of the Entry Plug, he suspected she'd had exactly the same problem in reverse.

Some of those thoughts wouldn't leave his head. For her, piloting Eva was the best possible thing in the world. She was fascinated by the ponytailed man accompanying her - Mr Kaji - and determined to win his favour, even though it had been perfectly clear to _Shinji_ that Kaji was far more interested in Misato, who he'd obviously met before. Her thoughts about Shinji, in turn, were a confusing muddle he couldn't follow and couldn't forget.

That was a little, he conceded, like his own thoughts about Asuka. She was pretty. She was good at piloting Eva. She was full of herself. She had a very short temper. He didn't really like her, but he still wanted to get to know her better. He wanted to understand where those thoughts stuck in his head came from. 

Shaking his head, he got up and walked through to the kitchen. Maybe a glass of water would help.

* * *

Asuka Langley Sōryū lay in the darkness staring at the ceiling of Kaji's guest bedroom, her eyes still red from crying. She'd tried to make another pass at Kaji when they got to his apartment, and it had gone even worse than the first. It would have been easier if he'd said the same things she was thinking about herself now, or even if he'd just been cold and blunt, but no. He'd had to be _kind_ about it and point out his own vices.

Her luggage being a casualty of the battle didn't help. NERV had provided a change of clothes for her so she could get out of her plugsuit and shower away the LCL, of course, but going to her debriefing in a T-shirt and sweatpants - because even though this was Japan, the quartermaster didn't have a regular uniform in her size - was not an experience she wanted to repeat.

_Shinji_ had been fine, of course. He'd gone to his debriefing in a perfectly normal shirt and slacks. Perks of being the Commander's son, she wanted to say, but the unwanted thoughts that had leaked into her head during the battle made it impossible to believe. Even she had more of a connection with her adulterous father than Shinji did with his.

Oh yes, those thoughts. She wanted them out of her head. She didn't want to know what it felt like to have your Evangelion blasted with a particle beam that made a mockery of AT Fields, and she _certainly_ didn't want to know what that other female pilot's breast felt like - he was a pervert remembering something like that so sharply - but she couldn't quite make herself hate someone who'd watched his mother...

Someone who'd watched his mother...

She thought she'd run out of tears for one night.

* * *

Shinji was standing by the sink when the kitchen light came on. He blinked, wincing in the sudden brightness, and turned towards the door. His guardian stood there, a slightly dumbfounded look on her face. "M-Misato-san?"

"Are you all right, Shinji?"

"I'm..." Shinji glanced down at his half-empty glass. "Misato-san, is... is Asuka all right? She looked really angry when she came out of her debriefing."

Misato smirked and opened her mouth as if to crack wise, then stopped and shook her head. "I don't know. Kaji lined himself up a two-bedroom apartment. I think he took her back there. I don't think she'll be staying there long."

"You were going to say something else, weren't you?"

"I was going to say something stupid, Shinji. Grown-ups are good at that." She pulled off her beret and tossed it over her shoulder. "We say things like 'I need a beer'. Want one? It might help you sleep."

Shinji shook his head vigorously. Watching her pour cans of the stuff down her throat every night was enough to make him very sure he didn't want to try it himself. "I'll be all right. Just needed to clear my head. Good night, Misato-san. Sleep well."


	4. Surface Tension

Misato looked at the stack of paperwork on her desk and sighed. Improbably for a Sunday morning, there was _more_ of it than when she went to sleep the night before. Most of it, she was sure, could perfectly well be dealt with by civilian clerks, but she couldn't hand any of it off without reading it all first. She grabbed the first folder from the top of the stack and was just about to start reading when her phone rang.

"Katsuragi here," she answered.

"It's Kaji. Look, I screwed up and made a girl cry."

Misato pinched the bridge of her nose. Kaji had been back in Japan less than twenty-four hours and he was already giving her a headache. "What happened?"

"Asuka made a pass at me again. I turned her down, because _hell no_ , and I was even nice about it, but..."

Misato leaned back and looked at the texturing pattern of the acoustic tile ceiling. "But nothing upsets a teenage girl with a crush on an older man like being reminded she's too young for him."

"Right."

"Fine. Obviously she can't stay at your place, then." Misato stuck the folder back on top of the stack and pondered the practical options.

"Obviously. Any room at yours?"

"Not rea-" She stopped, as a tolerable option came to mind. "Oh, to hell with it. Asuka can have my room. The storeroom's got a window, I don't have time to bring dates home, and I don't need any of the crap in there."

"Seriously?"

"Yes. You're paying for the removals van and the new furniture." A whimsical impulse seized her at that moment. "Oh, and for yakiniku and fancy beers for two next Saturday."

"Deal. See you later."

Misato sighed as Kaji hung up. She didn't need a teenage girl living in her apartment, she didn't need to be turning the place upside down at no notice, and she _definitely_ didn't need to have just invited herself on a dinner date with her idiot ex. She returned the handset to the cradle, pulled her beret back on, and walked out of the office, realizing as she left that Asuka was going to need to go _shopping_ as well.

* * *

"I'm home!" announced Misato's voice from the hallway.

Shinji started at the sound of her arrival, and nearly dropped the glass he was drying up on the floor. "Misato-san? What's wrong?"

Misato walked into the kitchen, typing a text message into her mobile phone. "That idiot Kaji upset Asuka last night, and she's moving in here."

Shinji scratched his head, trying to make sense of this announcement. He was pretty sure Asuka wouldn't want to share a room with either of them, and there wasn't a third bedroom. "Ah, Misato-san..."

"Don't worry, Shinji, your modesty will not be in peril! I'm giving her my room. I'll sleep in the storeroom." She stuffed her phone back into her jacket pocket. "They'll be here soon. I'll take Asuka clothes shopping. Could you help Kaji clear out my junk so there's room for a bed?"

Shinji felt a sudden and not-quite-unfamiliar sense of _irritation_ with his guardian. "Why aren't you staying to help?"

"Because Asuka's luggage got trashed during the fight," replied Misato.

"... Right." Shinji sighed. He'd been hoping for a nice, quiet, relaxing day, with maybe a trip to buy groceries. At that thought, a random flicker of Asuka's tastes sprang to mind. "Asuka hates fish. Could you get some pork or chicken?"

"I'll try and fit that in. We can get delivery if it's easier." Misato paused for a moment. "Wait, how did-"

The doorbell interrupted her. "Coming!" she shouted, as she spun on her heel and headed back to the front hall. Shinji set down the glass and followed behind her, wanting to at least briefly see Asuka now instead of waiting until evening.

The front door slid open to reveal an underslept-looking and gloomy Asuka and her scruffy, ponytailed crush. "Hi Katsuragi. One Second Child, safe and sound."

Asuka sighed. "So you're taking me shopping in your uniform?"

"Only if I need to intimidate the store staff," replied Misato. "Right, Kaji. We'll be back once Asuka's got a decent set of outfits. Do try and have the removals done by then. Shinji, keep an eye on this scoundrel and make sure he doesn't try to pilfer my panties."

Shinji snorted at that remark. "As if he'd want to."

Misato gave him an odd look over her shoulder, then shook her head. "Ready, Asuka?"

"No, but let's go."

Shinji watched Misato and Asuka depart, feeling discomfited by Asuka's manner. She didn't seem like the girl he'd met yesterday. "So, ah, where do we start?" he asked Kaji.

"You're the man of the house, Shinji," said Kaji, grinning broadly. "Tell me, does Katsuragi still starfish in her sleep?"


	5. Awareness

Asuka prodded half-heartedly at her lunch. Despite having only eaten half her breakfast, she just wasn't hungry. She looked up from the plate to see a worried look on Misato's face.

"Talk to me?" said Misato.

"What about?" riposted Asuka, the walls around her heart snapping up with reflexive ease.

"Why a growing teenage girl who hasn't eaten since 8am is picking at her lunch like she's stuffed, maybe."

"Not hungry."

Misato reached across the table with her chopsticks and plucked a piece of tonkatsu out of Asuka's bowl.

"Hey! That's my lunch!"

"You said you weren't hungry." Misato flashed a brief grin before turning serious again. "If you eat up, we can have this conversation later. If you don't, we'll have it right here and now."

Asuka poked at her lunch again with her own chopsticks. "Fine," she said, laying the utensils down. "Kaji's an asshole."

"I know, but that's not why he turned you down." Misato's expression went from 'serious' to 'stern'. "If anyone had got wind of him saying 'yes', he'd be having a very interesting conversation with Section Two right about now."

"What do you-" Asuka stopped as her brain caught up with Misato's implications. "But... but _I_ asked _him_!"

"That just means he'd only fall down the stairs _once_. I know you're upset, but, well."

 _I mustn't run away._ Asuka blinked. _That_ was certainly a sentiment she'd never felt a need for before. "Fine, fine, I get it. You're right. Can we finish the shopping now?"

Misato smiled and nodded. "Sure. I have to warn you, though, you might not appreciate the next bit."

"Why's that?"

"Well, you're starting school with Shinji and Rei on Tuesday, so you'll need a set of school uniforms."

Asuka rolled her eyes, but bit back the urge to challenge Misato on either point. It wasn't an argument she was likely to win. "Let's get it over with."

* * *

Looking down from the balcony, Shinji watched the unmarked white van pull away. There was something suspicious about the removals men Kaji had brought in; they were rather better spoken than he would've expected, and they'd steadfastly kept their gloves and long-sleeved turtlenecks on despite doing manual labour in Japan's eternal summer. "Uh, Mr Kaji, who _were_ those men?" he asked as the van disappeared in the distance.

"Oh, some guys whose boss still owes me a few more favours," replied Kaji, flicking imaginary dust off the front of his shirt. "Don't worry, they're not going to steal any of Katsuragi's junk. It's all going to sit perfectly safe in a warehouse until she wants it back. Their boss knows what's good for him."

Shinji could think of a dozen more questions he wanted to ask, but somehow, he suspected he didn't want the answers. "Right. So, uh, how long have you known Misato?"

"We met at uni. We saw each other for a while. It..." Kaji looked up at the sky for a moment. "It worked, but it didn't work out."

"What do you mean?"

"Men and women are different, Shinji. And I don't just mean in the fun ways." Kaji mimed voluptuous breasts with his hands. "Whatever we were looking for, I don't think we found it."

"You don't know?"

"Twenty isn't really old enough to know what you're looking for. Hell, I'm not even sure about thirty."

Shinji found himself wondering why, exactly, Asuka was so keen on Kaji. From a brief impression, he seemed to veer between flippant and just plain evasive at the drop of a hat. "What did you do to upset Asuka?"

"I didn't do anything I shouldn't. Anything else is her story to tell."

Shinji scowled. "That's not an answer."

"True. On the other hand, she hardly knows you and I'm not going to tell tales behind her back. If she wants you to know, I'm sure she'll tell you."

"She-" Gritting his teeth, Shinji held back his outburst. Kaji had a point, and talking about why it might not be as valid as he thought didn't seem like a good idea. "Fine, you're right."


	6. Unfamiliarity

Asuka sat on the bed in her new room, contemplating her situation.

On the up side, the bed was reasonably comfortable, the wardrobes and drawers had swallowed her new purchases with room to spare, and the room itself wasn't as pokey as she'd been expecting from a Japanese apartment.

On the down side, it felt pretty soulless without the nick-nacks her room back home had accumulated, and there was a faint, unnameable smell that the air freshener Shinji must have spritzed the room with couldn't conceal.

And of course, there was the door. The sliding door. The sliding door with no damned lock. It was ridiculous, asking her to share an apartment with a teenage boy and not giving her a door that locked. She yanked it open, rollers clattering noisily against the rails, and stepped out into the living room as soon as the door thumped against its end stop.

Misato was sat on the couch in a skimpy tank top and cutoffs, leafing through a magazine with two buff-looking men in speedos on the front cover. Asuka snorted in disgust, and her erstwhile guardian looked up at her. "What's up, Asuka?"

"This stupid door doesn't lock and the room smells funny and why are you reading porn in the living room?"

"It's not porn," replied Misato, laying the open magazine flat on the coffee table. "See?"

Asuka hesitated, wary of Misato's tendency to tease, and looked down. There wasn't a human in sight on the two-page spread - just pictures of exercise machines and what looked like price/feature comparison boxes above them. Cheeks burning, she tried to regain some kind of composure. "I didn't know you were in charge of the PT programme here."

Misato smiled wryly. "Neither did I until Fuyutsuki dropped it in my lap last week. One of our visitors from the JSDF kicked up a stink about us not having one."

"Right." Asuka's stomach rumbled, reminding her she hadn't finished her lunch. "When's dinner?"

"Half an hour," replied Shinji from the kitchen. "Chicken curry and rice."

* * *

With a belly full of beer and Shjnji's cooking, Misato leaned back in her chair and pondered her teenage charges' behaviour. Neither of them quite seemed themselves today. Asuka was actually backing down from confrontations, however gracelessly, and Shinji had acquired a sharp tongue from somewhere. The first could be chalked up to the thing with that idiot Kaji, but the second didn't really seem to have a cause behind it.

Her mobile buzzed annoyingly from the living room. Grumbling under her breath she headed over to see who was texting her on a Sunday evening.

It was Ritsuko. `"We need Shinji and Asuka for emergency testing tomorrow morning. Everything's set up and I've told the school Shinji won't be in."`

"I'll be in my room," said Misato, heading down the short corridor. "Play nice."

Her new room was, she realized, unpleasantly poky, but she was going to have to put up with it. `"Emergency?"` she texted back.

`"We need clean psychograph readings. Dual sync is an untested configuration."`

She scowled at her phone. `"What's wrong with the readings you've got from the Angel encounter? If there's something wrong with my pilots I need to know."`

`"Interference. There's only so much the MAGI can do with that data."`

Misato gave an exasperated sigh. `"Fine. We're going to talk about this tomorrow."`

* * *

Shinji hummed an unfamiliar tune to himself as he washed the curry residue out of the saucepan. It was an aggressive and choppy tune, and he'd never actually heard it, but there was something remarkably appealing about it.

"I didn't think you'd be into Rammstein," remarked Asuka from her seat at the table.

"Rammstein?"

She stared at him like he'd grown a second head. "You're humming one of their best songs!"

Shinji glanced nervously at the front door. "Oh. It's one of your favourites, right?"

"Yes." Asuka looked past him, also keeping an eye on the front door. "You... you got that from my brain. When we fought the Angel."

"I guess I must have—" He paused as he heard the front door opening. He wanted to explore this some more with Asuka, but not with Misato listening. "Later?"

Asuka nodded. "Sure."

"Hey kids, you've got a sync test first thing tomorrow," announced Misato, her annoyance with the situation plain to see in her expression. "And I have a meeting with Ritz at the same time."


	7. Observed

Asuka had never been bothered by the figure-hugging fit of her plugsuit. She liked the feel of the hi-tech fabric against her skin and the way it conformed to her movements without pinching or bunching. It let people know who she was - the pilot of Evangelion Unit 02 - and if some of the gazes it attracted were improper or disapproving, well, those prudes and perverts were beneath her notice.

And yet, this morning she stood in the locker room with her still-slack plugsuit hanging loosely around her body, hesitating for once to activate the tensioning system. Today, the prospect of those improper gazes felt... troubling. Unpleasant. Intimidating.

She slapped her hand against the locker. "Stupid Shinji," she muttered. It had to be something from his brain, another piece of him that had leaked into her. She triggered the tensioning system, checked that her A10 connectors were in place, and walked out into the hallway.

* * *

"Ah, Misato. Have a seat."

Misato hefted a stack of papers off the visitor's chair in Ritsuko's office and onto the floor before sitting down. "All right, Ritz, why don't you tell me what this is all about?"

"Dual sync is a completely untested scenario. We didn't even know whether an Evangelion would function with two pilots." Ritsuko leaned back in her chair. "Obviously it did, but the results just give us a new set of questions to answer."

Misato pinched the bridge of her nose. "So what's wrong with my pilots?"

"It looks like there was some mental contamination," said Ritsuko. "Maya spotted something on the psychograph readings, and given what you said about Shinji, it all fits. What we need now is a clearer sense of how much."

"Couldn't you at least pretend to care about _them_?"

"If I didn't care, Shinji would be at school and Asuka would be having the day off." Ritsuko fished her cigarettes out of her pocket. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a nicotine habit to feed and a simulator test to supervise."

* * *

Asuka walked into the simulator bay to find Shinji leaning against a safety railing, tapping his foot on the floor. The sight of him in a correctly fitted plugsuit instead of her spare was, she had to concede, quite appealing. "Hey, Shinji," she called to him.

Shinji looked up and smiled at her. "Hi Asuka. How are you feeling?"

She wanted to say 'fine', but the word stuck in her throat. He'd know she was bullshitting. "Weird," she admitted. "Does... does it bother you, wearing a plugsuit?"

"I'm mostly getting used to it. I still don't like the way Technician Kimura looks at me when I'm wearing it, though."

Asuka smiled weakly at the confirmation that _that_ thought was one of his. "I... we should make some time to talk. About things. You know."

"I know a good café," said Shinji. "We could go there when we're done here?"

Asuka hesitated. It would look like a date. She'd look like she was on a date with this... actually kind of cute and talented boy, who'd got into an Eva even when he didn't want to, because his father was going to force a wounded girl to do it instead. What could it hurt? "Sure. But we're paying for our own drinks."

"Don't want to give people the wrong impression, right?"

"R-right!" Asuka felt her cheeks flushing. Having someone around who actually understood her was going to take some getting used to. "So why are we waiting?"

"Lieutenant Ibuki says there's a circuit fault with the simulator and she didn't want to make us wait _inside_ the plugs."

"Huh. Someone nice works here?"

Shinji smiled wryly. "There had to be _someone_ , I guess."

The PA system chimed. "We've traced the fault and replaced the damaged parts," announced Lieutenant Ibuki. "Simulator plugs will be open shortly."

* * *

Misato paced nervously at the window of the observation bay. This wasn't like waiting for a live launch. She was in her element there, directing her pilots in a tactical situation.

It was more like when she'd been waiting to hear about her mother's condition. There was nothing she could do, and even once she had an answer it might not change anything.

"Simulator online," announced Lieutenant Aoba, leaning back in his chair. "Looks pretty boring."

"It's supposed to be," responded Ritsuko. "We want clean psychograph readings. Ibuki, enable synchronization."

Misato turned her attention to the status displays that were now flickering into life. There wasn't much to see yet, but it was actual information to focus on.

* * *

A simulated world flickered into being around Asuka. It wasn't really an improvement on the inside of an entry plug; she was surrounded by a flat, featureless plain under a flat, overcast sky. She thumbed the commlink switch. "Hey, what's with this simulation? We always had scenery in Berlin."

A video pane showing Dr Akagi popped up in her view. "We'll be loading a real scenario shortly. We need a psychograph baseline from a zero-threat environment, without your Evangelion complicating the results."

Another pane showing Shinji in his entry plug appeared. "Could be worse. At least the sky and the ground are different colours."

Asuka raised an eyebrow. "Seriously?"

"That was a programming error, Shinji," said Dr Akagi, before suddenly frowning. "Talk amongst yourselves. I may be some time." Her video pane vanished.

Asuka tapped her fingers on the control grips. She didn't want to talk about _that_ over the commlink, and there wasn't anything else she could think of worth talking about. There was the other pilot, she supposed, but...

Her cheeks flushed as the unwanted memory from Shinji replayed itself. No. Definitely not talking about her.

* * *

Ritsuko stared intently at the psychograph traces on the wall display. The cross-contamination between the pilots was clearly highlighted by the MAGI's analysis, but the observable effects were not at all what she'd have expected. Neither pilot had exhibited any frank psychiatric symptoms, just modest behavioural changes.

She sighed. There were bound to be latent issues. Maybe a stress test was needed. "Maya, load Test Angel 16."

"16, sempai? Isn't that the—"

"Yes. Asuka's been trained properly and Shinji has field experience. They should be able to handle it."

Misato interjected in a tone that would have frozen a penguin to death on the spot. "Would you like to explain to me why Lieutenant Ibuki is cavilling over your choice of testing material for my pilots, _Doctor Akagi_?"

"I... have to concede her point, Captain," said Ritsuko, weighing her words carefully. "The baseline data is solid. Their stability in light of the data is surprising, but I'm sure some more analysis will give us some insight. I think we can let them go about their day in peace."

Misato's voice thawed very slightly. "I'm glad to hear it. We should have a proper planning session soon."

Ritsuko toggled the commlink. "Change of plan. The data we have is enough to work with, so we'll be giving you the rest of the day to yourselves. Shinji, Rei will be collecting the day's schoolwork for you. Make sure you're in when she comes to drop it off."


End file.
